


PR Problem

by Jessy Ellis (heyjessypants)



Category: Lore Olympus (Webcomic)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-12
Updated: 2019-08-12
Packaged: 2020-08-19 16:48:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20213044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heyjessypants/pseuds/Jessy%20Ellis





	PR Problem

Hades poked his head out of his office door. 

“Have you seen Persephone anywhere? She didn’t show up for our one-on-one and she’s not answering her phone.”

Minthe looked up. “You had a one-on-one scheduled? Hades, you  _ have _ to put these things on your calendar or I can’t do my job. But yes, I saw her about 45 minutes ago.”

“Did you see where she was headed?” Hades frowned.

“Actually...yeah. Now that I think about it, I think she might have been headed for the roof.”

Hades’s head disappeared for a moment, then his entire body emerged from his office, thrusting his arms into his suit coat. “Can you please hold my calls until I get back? Something’s going on with her and I’m concerned.”

Minthe raised an eyebrow, but nodded.

“Thank you.” Hades strode across his executive lobby and out the door.  
  


Hades pushed open the rooftop door and froze.

Persephone stood on the far side of the roof, holding a champagne bottle in one hand and flinging sheets of paper over the side with the other. Her hair, cropped short when he’d seen her the previous day, now flowed down almost to her knees and whipped around her in the wind that coursed through the wind tunnel created by the surrounding skyscrapers.

One of the sheets of paper she flung got caught by an errant breeze and landed at his feet. He picked it up; it was a page from...a book report? He looked back up at her, confused. She wasn’t wearing a coat, just a knee-length skirt and long sleeved blouse. Her shoes had been discarded next to another champagne bottle, empty and laying on its side.

As he cautiously approached her, he heard her crying. She paused to take a swig out of the champagne bottle, then screamed something unintelligible into the wind as she flung another handful of papers to the sky.

“Fates,” he breathed.

Persephone whirled around to face him, eyes wild and unfocused. “Hades! Hades!” She walked toward him unsteadily. “Welcome to my little pity party!” She choked back a sob, took another swig of champagne, and then gestured expansively with the bottle. “So kind of you to join me here at the end of the world.”

The momentum of the bottle pulled her a little off balance and Hades caught her before she tipped over. He gently pulled the bottle out of her hand and set it on the ground, bringing his hand back up to brush her wild hair away from her face.

“Kore, what  _ happened _ ?” he asked, looking down into her tear-stained face.

As Persephone stared up at him her bottom lip began to tremble and her eyes welled up. She dropped her head and shook silently for a moment. When she raised her face to his again her cheeks were wet.

“Hestia s-saw the tabloid,” she choked out, taking several quick breaths before going on. “I...I lost m-my scholarship!” The last word came out in a wail as she buried her face in her hands, body racked with sobs.

“Oh, gods, Kore... _ gods _ , Kore, I’m so sorry. I…” he tried to pull her into an embrace, to comfort her, but she pulled away and snatched up the champagne bottle again, taking several healthy gulps.

“It’s done now, Hades,” she panted, dashing the tears from her eyes with her free hand and drawing a deep, shuddering breath. “Nothing happened the night Aphrodite put me in your car. You know it, and I know it.” She began to pace back and forth unsteadily, gesturing with her arms out to the side, gaining angry momentum. “It wasn’t even my fault that I ended up at your house in first place. But none of that matters,” she swung around to look at him. “It’s the  _ appearance of impropriety _ that’s at issue for The Goddesses of Eternal Maidenhood. I have become a  _ PR problem _ .”

Hades felt a knot form in his gut as he watched the small pink woman before him rant and pace.  _ This is my fault. I opened my stupid mouth, and I got cocky, and now her life is in ruins. _

He hovered slightly behind Persephone as she staggered back over to the waist-high wall at the edge of the roof. She grasped another handful of papers and flung them to the wind, tears streaming freely down her face. She bent to grab another handful and Hades gently grasped her wrist before she could toss them away.

“What are these, Kore?” he asked. “What are you throwing away?”

Persephone turned and thrust the handful of papers at him. “My academi-ic career, Hades. Every paper I ever wrote, every chess strat-atagem I analyzed, every math equa-ation I solved,” she bent and grabbed another handful and chucked it into the wind, “I busted my butt my entire life so I could go to college and make my own way. Now that opportunity is over before it even started so what's the…the...the  _ fu-ucking point?!” _

All at once she deflated, sliding down the wall to sit on the ground, head resting on her drawn up knees. Hades slid down beside her, looking at a page from what appeared to be an extremely well-written thesis on string theory.

“Kore,” he began slowly, staring at the page, “I am responsible for this thing that has happened to you.” He felt, rather than saw, her turn her head to look at him. “I’m the one who opened my mouth at the party and pissed off Aphrodite. And I’m the one who didn’t send Cerberus out to do a security sweep before we left the house on Sunday.” He watched her nervously from the corner of his eye.

Persephone stared. “Hades, I know I’m really drunk but are you telling me you  _ actually _ said that thing about Aphrodite?”

Hades couldn’t bring himself to make eye contact. “Yes,” he sighed. “I told my brothers I thought you were beautiful and that you put Aphrodite to shame. She overheard me and now,” he gestured to the champagne bottles and scattered papers, “this.”

Persephone was silent just long enough to make him look at her. She met his gaze more or less steadily and said, “That was really fuckin’ stupid, dude,” then pushed the champagne bottle against his chest.

Hades brought the bottle to his lips and took a couple of healthy swallows. He looked at her. “Aren’t you cold with no shoes and no coat?”

“I wasn’t until I sat down,” she confessed. “I was warmed by the liquor jacket and rage before, but it’s starting to seep in now.”

Hades handed the champagne bottle back to her and she took another gulp. “Why don’t we go inside and warm you up, then?”

Persephone shook her head. “No,” she replied, tears welling up again. “I-I can’t. If anybody talks to me I’m just going to lose my shit and I’ll look like an idiot. No way.”

_ Okay...my suit coat is not going to be enough to warm her up. But I can’t ask her to...you know what? Fuck it. She needs a hug. So do I.  _

Hades folded in his legs so he was sitting cross-legged and opened his arms. “Come here, Kore. Let me warm you up, and we’ll figure out what to do next.”

She gladly climbed into his lap, pulling her feet up and snaking her arms around his chest under his coat. “You’re so warm!” she moaned, burrowing closer and resting her head on his shoulder.

Hades wrapped his arms around her and rested his cheek against her soft hair. “I really am so, so sorry, Persephone. I promise you, I’m going to do everything I can to make this right.”

She looked up at him then, eyes gone soft and heavy lidded. He felt her hands slide around his ribs and up his chest to grab his tie and draw his face down to capture his lips with her own.

Hades’s eye sprung wide and he moved his hands to her shoulders to pull himself away when her tongue lightly slid across his bottom lip and he groaned. He parted his lips to deepen the kiss and let himself get lost in the taste and the scent of her, the soft warmth of her lips pressed against his.

He was pulled out of his haze when he tasted salt. He broke off the kiss and looked at her; tears were running freely down her cheeks. She started plucking awkwardly at his shirt buttons, pressing her lips back to his.

He pulled away again. “Kore, what are you doing?”

“The whole world already thinks you’ve had me,” she choked back a sob, popping his top button and loosening his tie. “I know you want to. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to. We might as well just do it.” The second button came open under her fumbling fingers.

Hades gently grasped her wrists. “Kore, look at me.  _ Kore. _ Look at me. Please?”

She looked up, tears streaking down her cheeks and chin trembling. “Don’t...don’t you want me?” She tried and failed to suppress another sob. “Doesn’t anybody want me?” 

Hades looked down into her devastated, tear-stained face.  _ I’ve spent so much time and energy trying to convince myself that I can continue on with my life the way it was before she came into it. But I can’t.  _

“Sweetness, please don’t say that,” he murmured as he wiped her tears away. 

_ I need her. She’s drunk and depressed and I’m a complete mess but...I’m going to tell her and to hell with the consequences. _

“Persephone, I want you so much it hurts. I can’t stop thinking about you. I want to spend every minute of my day with you. I want to sleep next to you every night. But honey, I don’t want this to happen out in the cold, with you drunk and crying. And I don’t think you do, either. Do you?”

Persephone emitted another hiccuping sob and shook her head. Hades gathered her to his chest and cradled her there, rocking her back and forth while she cried, whispering comforting nonsense into her hair. 

At last she settled down, exhausted and all cried out. Hades brushed the hair away from her face. “Kore, we’re going to figure out a way for you to stay in school, okay? We’ll think of something.”

“Promise?” she murmured into his chest.

“I promise, Sweetness. We’ll make this right. Together.”


End file.
